69. The History of Burgundy Wine Laws: How Monks and the Napoleonic Code Shaped Today’s Vineyards

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Welcome to episode 69 of the Wine Educate Podcast. This week, we’re continuing our Burgundy series, focusing on the fascinating history behind the region’s wine laws. Understanding this history really helps explain why Burgundy looks the way it does today—with its extreme fragmentation and complex vineyard ownership.

We start by looking at the early role of the monks. The monks not only planted and maintained the vineyards, but also took careful notes over centuries. Their records helped identify which parcels produced the best wines, laying the foundation for today’s classification system of Grand Cru and Premier Cru sites.

Then we move to the Napoleonic Code. After the French Revolution, vineyard land was redistributed from the church and nobility to the people. Under Napoleonic inheritance laws, land had to be divided equally among children. Over generations, vineyards were literally sliced into smaller and smaller parcels—sometimes down to just a single row of vines. This made it nearly impossible for individual growers to make and bottle wine on their own, paving the way for the rise of négociants.

We also compare this with Bordeaux, where wealth and resources allowed estates to avoid such division by creating shares, keeping vineyards intact under large châteaux. This is a key reason why Burgundy and Bordeaux evolved so differently.

Finally, we take a closer look at Chablis, adding another layer to our Burgundy pyramid:

• Petit Chablis – entry-level wines from less favorable sites (often cooler or higher).

• Chablis AOC – classic Chardonnay from the region.

• Chablis Premier Cru – 79 sites exist, though not all are widely used on labels.

• Chablis Grand Cru – one appellation, but divided into seven named climats, each appearing on labels.

Next week, we’ll dive into the Côte d’Or and one of the most important concepts in wine education: slope. We’ll explore why the position of vines on a hillside matters so much, not just in Burgundy but in many of the world’s great wine regions.